Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-06-29
HOW GREAT MEN WRITE.
\ GOVERNMENT PRINTER TALKS OF
CONGReSSMEN'S MANUSCRIPTS.


low Senators and Representatives Pre-
pare Their Speeches-The Paper They
Use-The Copy of the President-.Storie.
of Sam Houston.
Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, June 20.
! One of the brightest printers of those EN-
! bloyed on the The Congressional Record give,
ne some interesting facts about how our con
.sressmen prepare their speeches. He says
| 7hat out Of the 325 members of the house less
han ten now furnish their own manuscripts
to the printers, and that of these Warner, OF
Ohio, is the worst writer, while Breckenridge
of Kentucky, is about the best. "Warner',
copy" he says, "is full of interlineations and
revisions 1t looks like the tracks of drunken
hen or an intoxicated fly who has crawled in
irregular lines across the sheet 1t IL readable
however, by those who are accustomed to it
and it looks much better in The Record than
it does in manuscript. Breckenridge writes a
very nice hand. He dictates some of bis
speeches to the typewriter and furnishes
others in pen and ink. Holman, the great
objector, writes very well for an old
man. He shows his character in his hand
writing and makes the letters small and put,
The lines very close together. He does this,
| suppose, to save ink and paper. We
never see Tom Reeds copy at all He always
speaks extemporaneously, and his chief work
n congress is in making short speeches. His
average speech is line and half long, but
ne sometimes rises to the occasion and makes
fiery political speech which reads as
smoothly rs though it had been carefully pre-
~aH 70 tod
inent speaker this year. Last year be didn't
say one word. This year he and Hepburn
were, next to Holman, the most chronic OBJ
jectors. Dick Townsend of Illinois, is a good
friend Of the printers. He writes a good hand
and his copy is we'll prepared for the press.
SAM Cox furnishes as poor copy as any that
comes into the Office. His hand is running
scrawl and any kind of paper suits him He
uses old envelopes, newspaper wrappers, and
scraps Of any description. He pastes his
manuscript together. He interlines it, recor-
reefs it, and some of his copy looks as bad as
the hieroglyphics Oh the tomb Of III. He is a
great fellow to correct proofs also, and though
his speeches are very good it costs the govern
nent something to get them.
4*x
"Senator Call, of Florida, is another man
who is not particular as to his paper. The
back of an envelope, piece of circus bill, or
common printers paper, suits him as wen as
mything else. Calls hand is very hard to
read. He writes the first letter of word
worry plainly and then makes running dash
With his pen for the rest. Half of his words
are alike, and mono OF them are easy to make
out Dan voorhees, writes many of his
peeches. He uses large sheets of printing
'aper OF the same size and neatly cut. Hawley
furnishes splendid copy. He is an old editor,
md he knows how to get his stuff up for the
oress m*s
awe seldom get anything from Randall or
Carlisle. Randall's matter comes from the
'tenographers of the house, and Carlisle
loesn't make the long speeches, so full Of
statistics, which he used to make sever al
years ago. Morrison didn't appear on the
hoor very often during the recent session
for leader Of the house. He has his licuten-
ants speak for him, and thus you see that
P"ndnn. Carlisle and Morrison, who are con-
sidered the leaders of the Democrats, furnish
as little matter as the country members from
Waybac 80
"The three Republicans who furnish the
most copy are Burroughs, Hiscock and Butter
worth, and great many of the members
never speak upon the floor at ALL Hutton. of
Missouri, last year made a speech of one line
i'll length. 1t was, Mr.. Chairman, submit
the following report"
MOST of the long speeches are printed in
pamphlet form, are they not2"
Eyes; should say that 90 10Oths of them
are so issued. The members get them SO
printed at about cost price, and they thus dis
6ilbute them over their districts and through
out the United States Beck's speech on
civ had IA l. 4.
on Henry b. Anthony Whenever a big
speech is made we always have to get out a
lot of pamphlet copies of it.
Speaking of Beck, he is well liked at the
government printing office. His copy is
always rightly PACED and it shows study.
"As to the other senators, Edmunds never
writes speech, and Morgan, of Alabama, is
known in the government printing office as
Old Perpetual Notion He is always talk
ing and never lacks something to say. Sena-
tor Sherman's speeches are largely dictated
90 his private secretary. He writes rather
lain hand, almost effeminate in its charac-
en- He is more particular about his express
ion than he Is about the comfort of the
inter, and he is particular to have himself
veil reported. Lamar used to bring secre-
tary to the government printing office when
yer he made big speech, and the two
would stay there ana correct and recorrect
the proof until they got it just to suit them
Lamar has an elegant style, and his speeches
always read like classical essays When
Jones, of Nevada, delivered his great silver
speech he brought his private secretary to
the office with him. The speech was long
one and it covered $50 pages, think, of The
Congressional Record During the reading
the secretary ventured to advise some
change, when Jones asked: who in the ID
is making this speech, young man, you OF
mep ~
"The order in the government printing Of
flee is to follow the copy, however it reads.
This is, however, general order, and behind
it there is the unwritten law to make the
speeches readable. The printers patch up
many a bad sentence, and the congressman
makes much better speech in The Record
than he delivers on the floor. The work of
the government printing Office does not paw
quite so well as that of metropolitan daily,
while it pays better than that of the country
offices. There is no danger of a man not
getting his pay, however. and the govern
ment never scales its wages"
x*s
"Do you get any of the presidents copylo
ayes, occasionally, though most OF his mat
Ill L Il.